I love you, always
by PMakepeace98
Summary: What if Katniss was in love with Peeta during their first games? What would have happened to them? This is my take on their story. Starts from just before Peeta confesses his love for Katniss in his interview, and it goes through all 3 books. I don't own the Hunger Games or the characters. This is my first hunger games fanfic, so hope you enjoy it. Please review!
1. I love you too

**I love you, always**

**Chapter 1**

"I don't think it's going to work out. Winning… won't help in my case." Peeta says to Caesar. There is a look of sadness in his eyes as he says this.

"Why ever not?" Caesar asks, mystified. Desperately wanting to know what his answer is going to be.

Peeta blushes a deep shade of red and answers "Because… because… she came here with me." Me. Peeta Mellark, the boy with the bread, the boy that saved my life when we were only eleven years old, the boy that pretty much every girl in school fancies, he fancies me, he's in love with… me. I'm shocked, what am I supposed to do now. I can't hear anything around me, all I can do is think about Peeta, and what he has just told the whole of Panem.

I'm taken out of my thoughts when Peeta's buzzer goes off. I look up to see Peeta walking over to me, Effie and Haymitch. He smiles at me, and I smile back at him. Then we head back to our apartment in the training centre.

When we get there I walk straight to my room and get ready for bed. When I get in bed though and prepare to go to sleep, all I can do is think about Peeta. I think about the times that I saw him in school and he smiled at me as he walked past with his friends, and how I couldn't help but blush. I think about the time when he chucked me the bread which saved mine and my family's life, and how I wanted to say thank you to him but I was too shy to do anything. Then I think about when he just told the whole of Panem that he loves me, and how sincere and sad he looked as he said it, obviously sad because we are about to go into the games and fight for our lives. As he said it though, all I felt was longing. I was longing for him to come straight to me and pull me in for a hug, or kiss me, or… I don't know. I'm so confused right now. Why am I feeling these things? I need to see him, to speak to him, to have him hold me in his strong embrace.

I climb out of my bed and decide to go for a walk, up to the roof. It's a waste of time me staying here if I can't sleep.

When I arrive at the roof I find Peeta, over by the railing, looking over the Capitol. I walk over to him, slowly. "Can't sleep?" I ask him. He looks at me and smiles.

"No. You?" He replies.

"No. Peeta, tonight what you said in the interview. Did you mean it?" I ask shyly.

"Yes. I've loved you since we were five. On the first day of school when you sang the valley song, ever since then I knew I was a goner." He says, laughing at the memory, I smile at him.

"Why didn't you ever tell me?" I ask.

"Because, I didn't think that you would feel the same way. I was scared that you would reject me. I was a coward." He answers.

"Peeta, you're not a coward…" I trail off.

"Yes I am. Katniss I was scared of telling you that I loved you. And now I am scared that I am going to lose you." He says with tears pooling in his eyes.

"How do you know that I didn't feel the same way? Peeta, ever since the first time I saw you, I have felt these strange things that I can't even explain. The day that you chucked me the bread that saved my life, all I wanted to do was say thank you but I was too shy to talk to you. Whenever you smiled at me, I blushed. Peeta, I love you too." I say with tears starting to pool in my eyes too. "Peeta, when your name got picked out of that reaping bowl, all I felt was sadness. I was sad because I didn't want to fight you, I didn't want to lose you, and all I wanted was for someone to volunteer for you the way I volunteered for Prim." I say as the tears start falling down my cheeks. He pulls me in for a hug and I hug him back.

"I love you Katniss." He says as he cries into my neck.

"I love you too Peeta." I reply. "Peeta, I'm scared. I don't want to lose you, I can't lose you."

"Katniss, you don't have to be scared. I will be with you. You can meet me when get out of the Cornucopia, just don't get anything from there, it's too dangerous. I will do whatever it takes to get you out of there alive, ok." He says and I pull back and look at him.

"Peeta, no. If you get me out of there alive, that means me losing you, and I can't live life without you Peeta. If you die in there, I won't be able to live, I will be broken." I say sincerely.

"What are we going to do, Katniss? Both of us can't get out of there alive. What are we going to do, trick the gamemakers into letting us both win if we get down to the final two?" He says.

"We'll think of something if it comes down to that. And I will meet you when we get out of the Cornucopia." I say.

"Come on, let's go to bed. We need to be well rested for tomorrow." He says.

"Ok." I answer and he takes my hand in his and we walk down to the bedrooms. We stop outside my room and turn to face each other.

"So, goodnight Katniss. I'll see you tomorrow." He says.

"No, Peeta. Can you sleep with me tonight? It'll help." I ask.

"Of course I will." He says and we walk into my room and get in the bed. I rest my head on his chest and he wraps an arm around me. "Goodnight Katniss. I love you."

"I love you too. Goodnight Peeta." I say before closing my eyes, smiling.

…

I wake up in the morning, still in Peeta's arms. I smile. I look up at him to find him smiling at me. "Good morning beautiful." He says.

"Good morning." I reply and kiss him. The kiss makes me want more and we deepen the kiss. Though not long after Haymitch walks in the room, while we are kissing, and stops in his place.

"Ahem." He chokes out and we break the kiss. Looking at him, blushing. "So, it wasn't a lie, you two do actually love each other. Wow. Never saw that coming. Anyway you have to get ready, you have to go soon." He says before leaving the room.

"We should get ready." Peeta says blankly whilst looking me in the eyes with sorrow in his. I nod in reply and we get ready without saying anything. The silence is awful, we both know we're going to die, and if both of us don't, one of us will.

When we are ready we head into the dining room to find Haymitch sitting at the table, waiting for us. "Well, you have about ten minutes to get some food and drink in your stomach before we have to go." Haymitch says blankly, not looking at either of us. We sit down and start eating. "Guys, listen to me. I will help you both get down to the final two, as long as you stay in love with each other. Then when you are in the final two and you have to decide who is going to die, don't. Somehow look like you are both going to die, or kill yourself as you can't live without each other. Then, because they need their victor, because if they don't the people of Panem will think the Capitol and Snow are weak and can be beaten. They will let you both win. I will be here to help you, I will send you gifts as long as you act in love, I will talk to people and then you can both get out. So as long as you keep each other alive until you're in the final two, you will both get out." He says and we look at him shocked.

"Are you sure this is going to work?" I ask.

"Yes. I'll make sure it does. No one wants you two dead after Peeta announced that he loved you. Well the other tributes do, you are going to be the main target. So find a place to hide, and stay there. You only come out if you need to go hunting, to get water, or to retrieve my gifts. But I will only send you gifts when I know that no one else is around you. And keep being in love." Haymitch says.

"Ok." Peeta says.

"We have to go now guys. The hovercrafts are waiting for you. Peeta, Effie is going to meet you on the ground floor of the training centre, I am taking Katniss. You should go and meet her." Haymitch says to Peeta.

"Ok. Goodbye Katniss. I'll see you in the arena. Find me." Peeta says as he stands up and kisses me on the lips.

"Goodbye Peeta. I'll always find you." I say, he smiles before turning back to Haymitch.

"Goodbye Haymitch. Thank you for everything." Peeta says.

"That's ok. Now go." Haymitch replies before Peeta leaves. Now it is just me and Haymitch in the room. He stands up and walks over to me. "Come on Katniss, we have to go." He says to me. I stand up and we leave the room to go to the hovercraft.

Haymitch and I arrive at the hovercraft after about ten minutes of leaving the apartment. We turn to face each other. "Katniss, whatever you do, stay alive, with Peeta." He says. I nod in reply before climbing onto the ladder that leads up to the hovercraft. There is a current that glues me to the ladder and it pulls me up into the hovercraft. A lady comes over and injects something into my arm.

"What is that?" I ask the lady.

"It's your tracker." She answers and the current unfreezes me. I Go and sit down in a seat and do up my seatbelt. Then we fly to the arena, the windows are blacked out so we can't see anything that might give away the arena.

We arrive in just under thirty minutes and peacekeepers come and lead us to our waiting room where we wait to be lifted into the arena. The peacekeeper closed the door behind me and I turn around to find Cinna standing in front of me. He embraces me and I hug him back. "Hey, girl on fire." He says.

"Hey." Is all I can say in return.

"You should eat and drink. God knows how long it will be before you can eat and drink again. Come with me." He says and leads me to a table that is full of platters of food and glasses of drink. I sit down and eat and drink some of the food, though I can't stomach much of it. We talk for a bit about various things before Cinna looks up at the clock on the wall. "It's nearly time for you to go. Come on, let's get you ready." He says and we stand up and go over to a couch. Next to it is some railings that have a jacket on it. He grabs the jacket and takes it of its hanger. He wraps it around me, but before he does it up he shows me that my mockingjay pin is on it.

"Thank you." I say. He does the jacket up for me and it feels surprisingly comfortable.

That's when we hear it, the voice saying that there are only thirty seconds until I have to be in the arena. Cinna hugs me one more time, I'm shaking. When he lets go the voice says that I have twenty seconds until I have to be in there. "Remember girl on fire, I'm betting on you." He says before kissing me on the cheek.

"Ten seconds." The voice says and I start walking to the glass cylinder that is in the corner of the room. I get in it and the door closes. I turn to look at Cinna one last time, but before I know it they're lifting me up into the arena.

When I get into the arena I look around. I'm in some sort of field that is surrounded by a forest and there is a lake. My thoughts are distracted by the legendary announcer, Claudius Templesmith, saying "Ladies and gentlemen, let the seventy-fourth Hunger Games begin!" A that is when the sixty second countdown begins.

**Hey guys. Hope you enjoyed it, please review. This is my first hunger games fanfic, and I love the books and the movie so I thought about some of the what if's and decided to write a fanfic. Anyway, please review.**


	2. Rue

**I love you, always**

**Chapter **

Sixty seconds. That is all I have until I am fighting for my life in this arena. I look around at my surrounding. I look at the weapons and supplies that are around the cornucopia. Then I look at Peeta, he is looking at me too. He is about five pedestals away from me. Then I notice there are two supply bags a few yards away from his pedestal, he looks at them too, then back to me and nods.

"Ten, Nine, Eight, Seven, Six, Five, Four, Three, Two, One."

That is when the games begin. Before I know it, everyone is off their pedestal, heading towards the cornucopia. I am running to Peeta, who is running to get the bags. I reach him and we each get a bag, put it on our backs and run into the woods.

We run for hours, trying to get as far away from the other tributes as possible. We're starting to get out of breath from running for so long. "Let's stop here. We should be far enough away from the other tributes now." Peeta said as he started to slow down and walk. I stopped running too. We decide to sit down and see what we got in our bags.

We sit on the ground, leaning against a tree, next to each other, and open our bags. In mine I have an empty flask, a wire, a sleeping bag, a bag of pork scratching's, iodine, and a few other things. Peeta got an empty flask, iodine, a knife, a sleeping bag, a bag of peanuts, a few other things. Then he pulled out a strip of little square packets of condoms and I couldn't help but laugh. "What are you laughing at?" Peeta asked me.

"They're condoms. I think they're expecting us to have sex, that's why they put those bags so close to you, so we would grab them, notice the condoms, and have sex for their entertainment." I answer, and he laughs with me. We put everything back in our bags and look at each other.

"I love you." Peeta says as he cupped my cheek with is hand and pulls me in for a kiss. I kiss him back, but the kiss only makes me want more. I deepen the kiss and we kiss for a few minutes before pulling back.

"I love you too." I say against his lips.

That is when we start hearing the canons that tell us how many people are dead. The bloodbath at the cornucopia must be finished. The canons stop after twelve, so twelve of us are dead already. I look at Peeta and he has and he looks at me with the same sad look that I am giving him.

"What are we going to do now?" He asked.

"Why don't we go and find some water before we die of dehydration." I reply.

"Ok." He says as he stands up and offers me his hand. I take it and he pulls me up. We put our bags on our backs, hold hands, and walk to go and find some water.

We walk for about another hour before we hear the steady flow of water. We walk towards the sound of it and find a river. We walk over to it and sit down on the rocks and stones of the river bed. We get our flasks out of our bags and fill it with water. We put some of the iodine in the water and wait half an hour until we can drink it. Whilst we are waiting for the water to purify we lay down on the river bank, my head on his chest. "What's the plan?" I ask him.

"I don't know. Lie low until everyone else has died and hope Haymitch can keep his promise." Peeta says quietly so no one watching suspects anything.

"We need to go into hiding, everyone will come after us and want us dead. I just hope we can make it." I say quietly.

"Yeah, we'll find somewhere to hide." He whispers. "Are we going to give them what they want and have sex?" He asks and I can't help but laugh.

"I don't know about you but losing my virginity on TV, with the whole of Panem watching, even my mum and little sister, isn't something that I have ever wanted to do. Unless you've already lost your virginity." I say, looking up at him.

"No, I haven't had sex before. I was waiting for you." He says and I get tears in my eyes at what he said.

"Really? You really waited for me." I ask.

"Yes. I've loved you since we were five years old. I've waited for you to be ready to have me in your life. I've waited because you were the only girl I ever wanted to be mine, to marry, to have kids with. You were the only one that I could picture in my life, in my future. It's a shame we won't get to do any of that stuff. And I know you never wanted kids, it was just something I thought would be nice." Peeta says with so much emotion and love in his voice that I start crying.

"If you came into my life sooner I may have changed my mind. About kids. Now I think about it and I realise that you're the only one I would ever want to marry and have a family with. Because when I'm with you I feel safe, I feel like everything will be alright as long as you are by my side. It's just a shame that we fell in love now, when we're in the hunger games." I say as the tears pour down my face.

We hear beeping, beeping that can only mean one thing, we have a parachute. We look up and to our surprise we see a parachute floating down to us. We sit up again and Peeta grabs it. We open it to find a bowl of broth and a letter from Haymitch. We unfold the letter and read it in our heads to stop people getting suspicious about what it may say. It read:

_Hello Peeta and Katniss,_

_Keep doing what you're doing, you're doing great. Open up more about how you feel and be more romantic. They did purposely place those bags by Peeta and purposely put condoms in one of them. They want you to have sex for their entertainment, you don't have to. I know both of you would want to lose your virginities not on camera, so just make it look like you are. You can hide in the sleeping bags and keep your clothes on, just kiss a bit and make sexy noises. Or you could have sex it's up to you. There's a cave not far from where you are now, that will be a good place to hide. I am doing whatever I can to make sure you two get out of there alive. You will both be out of there soon, I promise. _

_See you soon,_

_Haymitch_

When we finish reading the letter Peeta puts it in his pocket and we drink our bottles of water as it has now been over half an hour. When we have finished our drinks we fill the bottles up again and add the iodine before putting them back in our bags, we also wrap up the broth with the parachute and Peeta puts it in his bag. "Don't you have the strange feeling that someone is watching us?" He asks.

"The whole of Panem are watching us." I say, laughing at what he said.

"No, not on TV, but here, in the arena." Peeta says and I know exactly what he means.

"Yes." I say and we turn our heads around to the forest behind us and we see the obvious sight of what can only be Rue moving to hide behind a tree. I look at Peeta and we stand up. We walk over to the tree she is hiding behind and find her. She looks at us, worried. "Hey. Don't worry we aren't going to hurt you." I say and she moves from behind the tree.

"Do you want to stay with us?" Peeta says. We know this is dangerous, but she is only twelve and other people have allied together, so why can't we. Rue only nods in reply, but she has a smile on her face. "Ok. Should we find that cave that Haymitch was talking about?" He whispers that last sentence in my ear. I nod.

"We're going to go and find some shelter, come on." I say to Rue and she follows me and Peeta back onto the river bank. We look around and soon we find the entrance to a cave. The three of us walk over to it and enter once we see that no one else is in there. When we enter we sit down against the cave walls. I am sitting next to Peeta, he is holding my hand. Rue is on the opposite wall, smiling at us.

"So, it's true. You two being together." Rue says, smiling.

"Yeah." Peeta answers her.

"Do you know where Cato and the Careers are? And what they're doing?" I ask the little girl that reminds me so much of Prim it's heart breaking to know that the Capitol are happy to send a twelve year old girl, or boy, into the arena to fight for their lives.

"Cato and the Careers are at the Cornucopia, they have built a pile of all the weapons and supplies there. Everyone else that are alive are somewhere in the forest." Rue says.

"A pile of supplies you say. That sounds tempting." Peeta says and I know exactly what he is thinking, he wants to destroy the supplies. "It's a shame we don't have any decent weapons." He says loudly, obviously trying to talk Haymitch into giving us decent weapons.

"Have you got any supplies or anything Rue?" I ask her.

"No. As soon as the games started, I ran for the forest without getting anything from the Cornucopia. I just wanted to get away from there." Rue answers and feel sorry for her not having anything.

"Don't worry, we'll look after you." Peeta says sincerely.

"We've got some broth. Do you want to share it with us?" I ask her. She nods her head with a smile and Peeta gets it out of his bag. He takes the lid off and pours a fair amount of it in the lid for Rue to have. Me and Peeta share the rest.

When we have finished our broth we look outside the cave and it is starting to get dark. Rue yawns. "Hey Rue. Do you want to borrow my sleeping bag for the night?" Peeta asks her.

"What about you then?" She asks.

"He can share my sleeping bag. You need some sleep." I say and she smiles at me.

"Ok. Thank you." She says. Peeta gets his sleeping bag from his bag and gives it to her.

"That's alright." Peeta says and Rue gets in the sleeping bag and lays down on the floor.

"Can you sing?" She asks us.

"Katniss can." Peeta says, looking at me with a smile on his face.

"Yeah, I can. What do you want me to sing?" I ask her.

"I don't mind, whatever you know." She says. I start singing `The Valley Song` the song Peeta fell in love with me with.

"_Deep in the meadow, under the willow_

_A bed of grass, a soft green pillow_

_Lay down your head, and close your sleepy eyes_

_And when again they open, the sun will rise…"_

I only manage to sing the first verse as Rue has now fallen asleep. Peeta then holds me around the waist and kisses my neck. This gesture sends shivers down my spine. "I love you." Peeta says.

"I love you too." I say as I turn to face him. I plant a short but passionate kiss on his lips.

"You'll be a great mother one day, you know. Even though you say you don't want kids." Peeta says, this makes me smile.

"You'll make a great father one day. And maybe, if we both get out of here alive, I might give you the kids you want." I say in a whisper into his ear. He smiles.

"Really?" He asks as he kisses me.

"Yeah, being in here is making me see that maybe I have been wasting my life, not wanting to be in love, not wanting to get married, not wanting to have kids. Now that I'm with you, I want all of that. I want to get married to you and have a family with you. You, and the games have changed me Peeta, I'm not the same girl anymore. I mean, I still have every quality that I used to have, I have these new qualities which are making me be a better person, want new things. And I can only be a better person, and want those things if you are with me, by my side." I whisper against his lips.

"I will always be with you Katniss, I love you, always." Peeta says. I smile at him before kissing him, again.

We hear the anthem start, they're showing us who is dead already. Peeta and I watch from the opening of the cave. When it is finished I sit in Peeta's lap, his arm around my waist, and watch Rue sleep.

I yawn after a few minutes of sitting in Peeta's embrace, both of us watching Rue sleep, thinking about what it would be like if we had our own children, what would happen if we watch them sleep, say their first word, take their first step, grow up, have children of their own.

"Let's get some sleep, it's been a long day." Peeta says. He gets the sleeping bag out of my bag and we both climb in. We lay on our sides, facing each other, his hand holding me at the waist, mine on his chest over his heart. "Goodnight Katniss. I love you." He says.

"I love you too. Goodnight Peeta." I say before kissing him. He kisses back before I fall asleep, thinking that maybe, just maybe, things will work out between me and Peeta. Maybe we will both get out of this arena alive, we will go home and everything will be alright, because we are meant to be, and I know that now.

**There you go guys, this is chapter 2. Hope you enjoyed it, please review. I will update as soon as I can!**


	3. The announcement

**I love you, always**

**Chapter 3**

I wake up the next morning to find Peeta smiling at me. I smile back at him before he leans down and gives me a kiss. I kiss him back in return. "Good morning." He says against my lips.

"Good morning to you too." I say back to him. "Where's Rue?"

"She is still sleeping." He answers before leaning down and kissing me again. "I love you, so much."

"I love you too Peeta, but maybe we should wake Rue up and go hunting for something to eat. Then we can plan how to destroy that lovely pile of supplies that the careers have at the Cornucopia." I say.

"Ok, but can I kiss you some more first?" He asks giving me some puppy dog eyes that I could never say no to. So I kiss him and he replies by deepening the kiss.

We kiss for a few minutes until we hear the sound of a rustling sleeping bag. "Eww. That is so gross. Guys, you should get a room." Rue says and we break apart. We look at her to find her looking back at us with disgust written all over her face. We just smile at her.

"So, we better get packed up so we can go hunting and think of a way to destroy the pile of supplies that the careers have at the Cornucopia." Peeta says.

"Ok." Rue says.

We pack up our sleeping bags and the other stuff into our bags and check to see if any other tributes are around the cave before going out and hunting. Peeta and Rue go and pick some berries while I make some snares and go around looking for animals to kill with Peeta's knife. I manage to find a couple of rabbits before going to the meeting place which we decided on an hour ago. I decide to check on the snares later.

I go to our meeting place to find Peeta and Rue sitting on a log, talking. There is a pile of berries on Peeta's jacket which is on the floor in front of them. "Ahem." I choke out and they turn to look at me with smiles on their faces. "Managed to bag a couple of rabbits." I say, holding up the rabbits. Peeta comes over to me and kisses me on the lips before taking the rabbits out of my hands and walking over to start a fire with the sticks and twigs that they had already piled up for one.

I sit down next to where Peeta is sitting as he is cooking the rabbits. "Katniss, you can help yourself to some of the berries, we've already had some of them." Peeta says to me.

"Ok." I say before grabbing a small handful of the berries and eating them. I knew Rue knew which berries were safe and not safe, that's why I sent her with Peeta.

After about half an hour the rabbits were cooked and we portioned one of them between the three of us, saving the other for later. "What are we going to do about destroying the supplies that the careers have?" Rue asks.

"Well, we could make some big fires, using leaves, to create smoke and that will distract them. Then I could go and find a way to destroy them while they're distracted." I say.

"Good plan. But the only weapon we have is a knife. You'll need to have at least a bow to have a good shot at destroying all the supplies." Peeta says, and I know he's right, I won't be able to do this unless get my hands on a bow.

"Glimmer's got the bow and arrows. Though, she isn't that good at using them. Really we need to get rid of her, get you the bow and arrows, then work on the plan." Rue says.

"You're right. But how are we going to kill her or get the bow and arrows, without a decent weapon, she's a career." I say.

"Well, I saw you throwing knives in training, you were quite good. You could use the knife we have to kill her. Or find some poisonous berries or something to kill her. Then you have a chance." Peeta says.

"How about not talking about how you're apparently going to kill her when she is right behind you." We hear Glimmer say before we turn around and find Glimmer looking at us angrily with her bow and arrow pointed at us. We all stand up and I grab the knife from my belt and before she can shoot the arrow I throw it at her and it hits her square in the chest. She collapses to the ground and after a few seconds the canon goes off.

I go over to her and take the bow and arrows off her. "Well that was easy." I say as I look back at Peeta and Rue. Both are unharmed.

"Yeah. I guess we can work on our plan now." Peeta says. So we sit down on the log and plan how to destroy the supplies.

After an hour of talking and planning we are getting to work on the plan of destroying the supplies. We start building some fires with big sticks and leaves. "Be careful." Peeta says to me before I go to destroy the supplies.

"I will. You be careful too." I say to him.

"I will." He says before he kisses me, I kiss him back. "I love you." He whispers against my lips.

"I love you too." I answer against his. When we break apart Rue comes running over to me and embraces me in a huge hug. "Hey, I'm going to see you for supper. Do you remember the signal?" I ask her as she lets go of me.

"Yes." She answers with a nod of her head.

"Ok, I'll see you guys later." I say before turning round and walking towards the field where the Cornucopia is, with my bow and arrow in hand.

After a few hours reach the edge of the forest around the field that the Cornucopia is in. I hide behind a bush but lift my head up high enough for me to spy on what the careers are doing. Cato, Clove, Marvel and the boy from three are all at the Cornucopia, talking. Though it is strange that they have the boy from three with them, he isn't a career. I see the pile of supplies, not far from where they are sitting.

I look in the direction of where I was earlier this morning and I can see that Peeta and Rue have started the first fire. Cato and the others notice the smoke coming from the trees and Cato, Clove, and Marvel go in search of the person lighting the fire. They leave the boy from three at the Cornucopia, but what is he going to do.

That's when I see Foxface running towards the pile of supplies and when she gets to it she stars jumping around the pile in some weird sort of dance until she reaches it. She grabs something and runs. The boy from three notices some movement and follows it giving me time to figure out why Foxface was jumping around before she got to the pile and how to destroy the supplies.

I look around and notice there are piles of dirt around the pedestals where we stood at the beginning of the games. Then I look back at the pile and remember that there were mines around the pedestals and now there aren't as they have dug them up, and probably put them around the pile of supplies. That explains why Foxface was jumping, and why they have the boy from district three with them. In district three they make explosives, so he probably knows a thing or two about how to work them and stuff, that is why they have him on their team.

I look at their pile again and notice a sack of apples near the top of the pile. Maybe, if I can shoot the sack so it opens, the apples will fall to the ground and set of the explosives. I grab an arrow from my quiver and step closer to the pile, but not to close so I am noticeable by anyone who will come back. I aim at the sack and shoot, it tears the sack but no apples come out. I take another arrow and shoot it at the sack. This one tears it a bit more but still no apples come out. I grab another arrow and shoot it, this time the bag opens and the apples comes out. They bounce on a few boxes and things before hitting the ground and setting of the explosives.

The explosion makes me fly back into the forest and bits of debris fall everywhere. I fall onto my back and everything sounds muffled. All I can hear really is a high pitched ringing that hurts my ear. I look back at the cornucopia from where I am, hidden by the same bush I was hidden by before and see that the careers have come back to see what has been going on. I see Cato go over to the boy from three who has also returned and Cato snaps his neck. The boy falls to the floor and I lay on the ground behind the bush. I feel dizzy. I feel something wet dripping onto my neck and I put my hand up to behind my ear and feel some wetness. I pull back my hand and find that it is covered in blood. I find some moss on the tree next to me and I peel it off and put it behind my left ear to soak up some of the blood.

After about an hour of lying on the ground and covering my ear in moss I start feeling less dizzy and some hearing comes back, so I slowly get up and walk away with my bow and arrows to find Peeta and Rue.

After a few hours of walking I get back to where I last saw Peeta and Rue. I see Peeta sitting on a log waiting for me. When he sees me he rushes over to me and embraces me. "Hey. What happened to your ear? Are you alright?" he asks me after noticing the patch of dried up blood behind my left ear.

"I'm fine. The explosion kind of made me fly back and I think I hit my ear on something. I felt dizzy so I decided to lay down for a bit, then made my way back here. I am fine now." I answer. "Where's Rue?" I ask. That is when we hear the screams of Rue shouting our names. She sounds so scared as we run in the direction of the voice.

After a few minutes of running we find Rue lying on the ground, covered by a net, shouting our names. We rush over to her and Peeta uses the knife to cut her out of the net. When she is out she embraces the pair of us. We hug her back.

When we let go of her we hear a crunch of some leaves or something behind us. We turn around and find Marvel standing there with a dagger in his hand. I grab my bow and an arrow and shoot it at him, it hits him in the chest and he falls to the ground, dead. But it's too late, he had already thrown the dagger that he had and when I turn round I find Rue, with the dagger in her chest. She falls into mine and Peeta's arms with tears in her eyes. I notice that both me and Peeta have tears in our eyes too.

"You blew up the food?" She whispers.

"Every last bit." I answer.

"You guys have to win." She says.

"Only one of us can win." Peeta says as a tear falls down his cheek.

"I have faith. You have to win, both of you." She says.

"We will try. We'll try for you, as well as us." I say. And that is when we hear the canon of the boy from district one, Marvel.

"Don't go. Don't leave me." She says.

"We're going to stay right here." Peeta says.

"Can you sing for me? You never got to finish that song." She asks. I nod my head and start singing `The Valley song`.

"_Deep in the meadow, under the willow_

_A bed of grass, a soft green pillow_

_Lay down your head, and close your sleepy eyes_

_And when again they open, the sun will rise._

_Here it's safe, here it's warm_

_Here the daisies guard you from every harm_

_Here your dreams are sweet and tomorrow brings them true_

_Here is the place where I love you…"_

Rue's eyes have fluttered shut, but her chest still moves, only slightly. Tears start sliding down my cheeks. But I try to finish the song for her.

"_Deep in the meadow, hidden far away_

_A cloak of leaves, a moonbeam ray_

_Forget your woes and let your troubles lay_

_And when again it's morning, they'll wash away._

_Here it's safe, here it's warm_

_Here the daisies guard you from every harm_

_Here your dreams are sweet and tomorrow brings them true_

_Here is the place where I love you."_

Those final lines are barely audible through my tears. Everything is silent. Until the mockingjays take up my song.

Rue's canon fires and I lean forward to press a kiss to her temple. Peeta does the same after me. Both of us in tears. Peeta wraps his arms around me as the sobs wrack my body.

"Why don't you go and get some flowers for her while I stay with her. They won't come for her if I am here." He suggests after a while. I nod and stand up. I go and pick some white flowers for her. I come back and find Peeta crying over Rue who is still in his arms.

Together we place flowers around her body and a bouquet of white flowers in her hands before standing up and looking at her for a few moments. Peeta's arms are around me as we both cry over her. We look up to the top of the arena where we know they are watching us and touch our three middle fingers of our left hand to our lips and point it towards the sky.

After a few seconds Peeta turns us around and we start walking. "Where are we going?" I ask with tears still pouring down my cheeks.

"Back to our cave." He answers with tears still in his eyes.

After an hour of walking we get to our cave and we walk into it. We dump our belongings on the floor of the cave and Peeta sits down and pulls me into his lap. He wraps his arms around me and we both cry. "Peeta, I can't lose you. If you die in here then I won't be able to live without you. Please, don't leave me." I say.

"I won't leave you, I promise." He says before giving me a kiss. That is when we hear the beeping of a parachute. We turn around and see a parachute coming into the cave. When it gets over to us I take it and open it to find some food and some medicine. Also a letter. I take the letter and open it. Me and Peeta read it, in our heads so no one suspects anything. It says…

**Hey guys,**

**Sorry about Rue, you guys made a nice team. Anyway, you are doing well, myself, Effie, Cinna and Portia are all proud of how well you are doing. I have sent you medicine for Katniss' ear and when you get out they are going to reconstruct it. Also the food is just to help you feel better. Try and look like you are having sex soon, people are expecting it. Also I have spoken to them, soon there is going to be an announcement, please listen for it. **

**Keep being in love and opening up to one another. I will send you something else soon.**

**Haymitch.**

I put the letter down and get the medicine. "Can you put this on for me please?" I ask Peeta as I give it to him.

"Of course." He answers before taking it, opening it, and putting a good amount behind my left ear. "Do you want to make good use of those condoms tonight after we have had something to eat?" He whispers into my ear while he puts the medicine on.

"Yeah, sure." I say before turning and kissing him. So after he put the medicine on my ear we ate what Haymitch had sent us. It was lamb stew, my favourite, with some bread rolls. We ate half of it and decided to save the rest for the morning, as well as our last rabbit which we will eat later on tomorrow. "So do you want to go to bed?" I ask seductively.

"Do you mean go to be or `go to bed`" He asks.

"I think you know what I mean." I say as I wrap my arms around his neck and pull him in for a kiss.

We kiss for a few minutes before we hear the voice of Claudius Templesmith. "Attention tributes. Congratulations to the six of you that remain. There has been a rule change in these games. The previous rule that stated a lone victor could win the games have been revoked. We will allow two victors as long as both of them originate from the same district. This will be the only announcement. May the odds be ever in your favour." I can't believe it, Peeta and I can go home if we both get down to the last couple. The only other team that are both alive are Cato and Clove. If one of them die then we have a chance.

"We could go home." Peeta says excitedly.

"Yeah. I love you Peeta." I say happily.

"I love you too. Why don't we get into the sleeping bag and continue where we left off?" He asks and I nod and kiss him before getting out the sleeping bag and a condom for him. And during that night we made love to each other, in the hopes of us both being allowed to go home and live our lives together.

**Hey guys. I know in the announcement it said that six of them remain and I haven't included all of the deaths, I just wanted it to move along a bit and I didn't really want to include all of the deaths, I wanted it to be based around Katniss and Peeta instead of everyone else in the arena. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it, please review. I will try and update as soon as I can.**


	4. The victors of the 74th Hunger Games

I love you, always

Chapter 4

The next morning I wake up to find Peeta smiling down at me. I smile back at him. "Good morning beautiful." He says.

"Good morning handsome." I say back, before we share a long and passionate kiss.

"Last night was amazing." He says against my lips.

"Yeah, it was." I say in return. "I bet the people of Panem loved it. Well, apart from our families." I joke and he laughs.

"Yeah, well somehow, we have got to get dressed without leaving this sleeping bag." He laughs.

"Yeah, well that will be quite easy…" I trail off before I crawl further into the sleeping bag to gather mine and his clothes from the bottom of it. I then put on my clothes, which I find easy in this confined space, surprisingly. "Do you want me to help you?" I ask him from inside the bag.

"Yeah, sure." He answers and I can't help but smile as he says it. So I put his feet through the right holes in his pants and he lifts his bottom half up so I can slide them on easier. Then we do the same with his trousers. I pass him his top though and he puts that on himself. I slide back up to him and give him a kiss before getting out the sleeping bag and going over to the bags of supplies.

"What are you doing?" He asks.

"Getting the rabbit, I'm hungry. And we had a long night, I gathered we could use some energy." I say before opening the bag with the rabbit in and pulling it out. When I have it I go back over to Peeta and, because the rabbit is already cooked, I break off a leg and give it to him. I then break off another leg and start eating it myself.

"What do you want to do today?" He asks before he takes another bite off his rabbit leg.

"I don't know. Spend the day with you and wait for everyone else to die." I say.

"Who else is still alive?" He asks.

"Cato, Clove, Thresh, Foxface, and us." I answer.

"Well, Cato and Clove will be working together to get us as we are the only other team to still be alive. Foxface will be in hiding, and so will Thresh." Peeta says.

"So, what do you want to do?" I ask him.

"I don't know. Get this over and done with as soon as we can…" He trails off because we hear something from outside the cave. Then some people come into the cave and looks at us. It is Foxface and Thresh.

"Don't worry, we aren't going to hurt you. We want to help you two win." Thresh says.

"Why would you want to help us?" I ask.

"Because you two helped Rue, you stayed with her until she died. We want you two to win, you deserve it, and we want to help you. We both know that we have no chance of winning, so we want you two to win for us, for Rue, and for yourselves. We are going to help you kill Cato and Clove, and we will let you win." Thresh says.

"No, you can't die for us." I say.

"Look, none of us have a chance of winning, and we know it. You two, you're in love, you deserve to win together, so you can be together. We don't want Cato and Clove to win, they're too viscous and don't deserve it, you two, you're kind, caring, and think about other people before you think about yourself. You deserve it, they don't. So we want to help you two win. Also, District twelve haven't had a winner in twenty four years, I think it's about time they had another couple to catch up with some of the other districts." Foxface says.

"Where are Cato and Clove?" Peeta asks.

"They're at the Cornucopia. They're careers, they wouldn't go somewhere they don't know." Thresh says.

"Why do you really want to help us?" I ask.

"Because we can't stand seeing a couple, who love each other, torn apart. You guys deserve to win, as we keep saying. Didn't you say to your sister that you would try to win for her? This is us trying to help you get back to her." Foxface says.

"Thank you." I say.

"That's alright. We should plan what we are going to do about Cato and Clove." Thresh says.

"You're right." Peeta says. "Take a seat, have you guys eaten anything recently?" He asks them as they sit down opposite us.

"Not really." Foxface says.

"Here, have some rabbit." I say before breaking them off a leg each and giving it to them.

"Thank you." Thresh says. So we sit down and plan our next moves on Cato and Clove.

After a couple of hours we have planned what we are going to do and decided that night time would be the best time to do it as they are likely to be asleep.

So after another couple of hours of planning the four of us head to the outskirts of the Cornucopia and wait for Cato and Clove to be asleep. After another hour we decide that they are probably in a deep enough sleep for the plan to work, so Thresh goes over to Clove, who is laying down not that far from Cato, but far enough that Thresh can do what he has to do. He climbs on top of her and she wakes up, looking scared, she is struggling to get out of his grasp as he has pinned her to the ground. He grabs a knife and holds it up. "This is for Rue." He says before bringing the knife down on a now screaming Clove and stabs her, in the heart. Her canon goes off and Cato wakes up to find Thresh on a now dead Clove. Thresh gets up off her and takes his knife out of her. He points it to Cato.

Now is when us three come out from behind the bushes. I have my bow that has an arrow placed firmly in it pointed at him as he looks at the four of us. Foxface and Peeta have knives aimed at him. "So are you four working together now? Only one or two of you can win." Cato says.

"We know. But Thresh and I wanted to help Peeta and Katniss win, I mean, they deserve it." Foxface says sneakily.

"Well, it's too bad that I am stronger than you." Cato says.

"Yeah right." I say before firing my arrow at him. It hits him in the leg and he falls to the ground.

"Good shot girl on fire, but you didn't hit the target." Cato says to me.

"Oh, your leg was the target…" I say before getting another arrow ready in my bow. "The next target is your heart." I say and he suddenly looks worried.

"Oh, you shouldn't have said that." Cato says before throwing a sword in my direction. Peeta jumps in front of me and it hits his leg.

"Peeta!" I scream, worried. I go over to him and look at the cut on his leg. It's deep. I stand up and charge towards Cato. My arrow trained on him. "You shouldn't have done that." I shout.

"Well, I was aiming for you, he just jumped in the way." Cato says. I'm getting angrier by the second so I fire my arrow at him. It hits him right in the heart and he collapses to the ground. After a few seconds his canon goes off and I rush back over to Peeta. Foxface and Thresh are with him.

"Peeta." I say before kissing him desperately.

"Hey, I'll be alright." He says.

"We should go now." Thresh says and I know that he means they are going to go and die. Him and Foxface stand up and start heading to the woods again.

"Wait…" I trail off, they turn to look at us. "Thank you, for your help and everything." I say to them.

"That's alright. We wish you both the best, and we hope you have a long and happy life together back in district twelve." Thresh says.

"Thank you. We will." Peeta says, looking at me with a smile on his face.

"Goodbye, Katniss, Peeta. It was nice working with you." Foxface says.

"Goodbye. It was nice working with you too." I say. They turn around and walk into the woods. I turn back to Peeta, dreading to think about what they are going to do.

"Hey, it's going to be alright." Peeta says to me as he takes me in his arms.

"Is your leg alright?" I ask him.

"It's painful, but I'll live." He says. That is when we hear it. Two booms of the canon. Foxface and Thresh are dead.

The sun is coming up again. And the voice of Claudius Templesmith booms into the arena. "Listen up tributes. There has been a slight rule change. The previous rule saying two victors could come out if both originated from the same District has been revoked. Only one can win. Good luck, and may the odds be ever in your favour."

I can't believe it, they tricked us, they made us think that both of us could win. I look at Peeta who looks just as shocked as I am. "Do it. Kill me." Peeta says. "One of us has to go home. They have to have their victor. That should be you."

"No, I'm not killing you. I need you. I love you." I say before the tears start to pour down my cheeks. I lean in and kiss him, passionately. He returns the kiss. "I can't live without you Peeta." I say against his lips.

"I can't live without you either." He says. Then I remember what Haymitch said about making it look like we are both going to die. I grab an arrow, Peeta has the knife.

"Grab the knife. We need to make it look like both of us are going to die." I whisper in his ear. He grabs the knife and we aim our weapons over our hearts.

"Together." He says.

"Together." I say.

"One." Peeta starts the countdown.

"Two." I say as he grabs my side braid and strokes it.

"Three." He says.

And as we start to bring our weapons towards our hearts, Claudius Templesmith interrupts. "Stop, stop." He shouts. "Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present to you the winners of the seventy fourth annual hunger games."

I put my arrow down and Peeta puts his knife down, we embrace. "I love you." I say to him.

"I love you too." He says to me.

The hovercraft to take us back to the Capitol arrives and we look up. Haymitch and some nurses come down the ladder and come over to us. "Well done you two." Haymitch says. The nurses go over to Peeta and one of them picks him up. Haymitch helps me up and we all get in the hovercraft. When we get in the nurses take Peeta away.

"No, Peeta." I say trying to follow them. Haymitch holds me back.

"Katniss, they need to sort out his leg. And they also need to sort out your ear." Haymitch says.

"No. My ear is fine, I want to be with Peeta." I shout at him.

"Katniss, Peeta is going to be fine. You need to get your ear sorted." He says.

"No." I shout. A nurse comes over to us and injects me with something, and that is when the world turns black.

…

When I wake up I find that I am back in my room in the Training centre. But Peeta isn't by my side. Someone opens the door then. I look at the door to find Haymitch walking over to me. "Good, you're awake." He says.

"Where's Peeta?" I ask.

"He's in his room, still recovering from his operation." Haymitch says.

"What operation?" I ask.

"You had your ear reconstructed." He says.

"What operation?" I shout.

"He had to have his leg amputated. The sword did too much damage to it." He says.

"How much of his leg did he have to have amputated?" I ask with tears pooling in my eyes.

"The whole bottom half. From his knee down." He answers. "He's going to be alright. There's no need to cry." He says to me.

"He had to have half of his leg amputated because of me." I say.

"He jumped in front of you to save you, because he loves you." Haymitch says.

"When can I see him?" I ask as a tear rolls down my cheek.

"Now, if you want." He answers.

"Would I ask if I didn't want to see him?" I say sarcastically as more tears pour down my cheeks.

"Good point. Do you want me to take you to his room?" He asks me.

"Yes please Haymitch." I say and he helps me get up from the bed.

"You may feel a little dizzy after the operation you had." He tells me as he helps me walk to Peeta's room.

We get there to find that Peeta still sleeping in his bed. Haymitch walks me over to him. "You can get in the bed with him if you want." He says, I nod so he helps me lay down with Peeta. "I'll leave you two to it." He says before leaving the room.

I look at Peeta as he sleeps and can't help but smile at how peaceful he looks. I kiss his lips softly, and his eyes start to open. When they are open he looks at me and smiles. "Hey beautiful." He says to me with a huge smile on his face.

"Hey Peeta." I say and smile back at him.

"Have you been crying?" He asks me, and I realise that I have been crying and there are probably red streaks down my face from where I have.

"Yeah." I answer quietly.

"Why? What's the matter?" He asks me. I look away. "Hey, you can tell me anything." He says and I look at him again.

"You had half of your leg amputated because of me." I say as more tears start falling down my cheeks.

"I jumped in front of you because I love you, and I didn't want to get hurt. I wanted to protect you." He says to me as he lifts his hand up to my face and wipes my tears away with the pad of his thumb.

"But, every time I look at it, I'll know that it was my fault that you had to have your leg cut off. I'm sorry." I say.

"It's not your fault. It's Cato's. He is the one that threw the sword." Peeta says to try and calm me down.

"Ok. I love you Peeta." I say.

"I love you too." He says. And we kiss, but the kiss is disturbed by Haymitch walking into the room.

"Oh good. You're awake." Haymitch says as he walks over to us. "I need to have a talk with you two." He says to us.

"Go ahead, not as if we had anything else to do." I say sarcastically.

"Ok. President Snow is mad at you both, for what you did in the games." Haymitch tells us.

"Why? Because we didn't die." Peeta says.

"Yeah, you told us to do something like that. And we aren't very happy with them either." I say.

"I know I told you to do something like that, but I was wrong. Snow thinks you were doing in to rebel against the Capitol, not out of the fact you were in love and couldn't live without each other." Haymitch says.

"Well that's wrong. Why can't we just tell him that?" I ask.

"You have your interview with Caesar in a couple of days. Act all loved up, and say why you really did it. If he still doesn't believe you after that, then we may have a rebellion on our hands." Haymitch tells us seriously.

"Isn't that a good thing, people have wanted a rebellion for decades." Peeta says.

"No, it's not a good thing. If a rebellion starts, your friends, your families, and your selves will be at danger, in fact our whole team will be in danger. He will come after us all, and if we don't win this rebellion, they will make the games a hundred times worse than they already are. This affects everybody, and Seneca Crane, he is going to die for letting you both win" Haymitch shouts.

"We're sorry, but you did tell us to do it. And plus, who's to say we aren't going to win this war." I say.

"Wait. I know some people, they can help us. I'll get in touch with them and I will give you news about things as soon as I can. I have to go. Speak to you soon." Haymitch says before leaving the room. And leaving me and Peeta in the room, shocked, scared, and hoping that if there is going to be a rebellion, we get to be happy at the end of it.

**Hey guys. Hope you enjoyed it, please review. I promise I will update as soon as I can. What do you guys think is going to happen next? Tell me, in your review…**


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